Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Fine. I admit it, recently there has been less jewellery making and selling and more pokemon making...and battling.

And no, I'm not embarrassed.

I've also partaken in a bit of this:

Many a happy hour was spend on Lego Lord of the Rings

But it's not all been fun and games, I've had a cold for about a week, and so there's been a fair bit of this:

In bed. Not sure if that's clear...

But casting my mind back to a time when I did something a bit more productive...earlier this month I had another shared market stall, this time at the Muswell Hill Festival and (profit wise) it was painfully unsuccessful. At around 4pm we decided to pack up and call it a day. I'd made two sales in four hours, the crowds were dying down and just as we got in the car the second downpour of the day set in- good timing! The thing is, we'd all anticipated the day to be so much more successful than it was, there were plenty of people there, lots going on, a range of stalls, entertainments and apart from a short downpour around lunchtime the sun did make an appearance.

Sorry, this was in fact the best pic I took all day

I was a bit disappointed, mostly, considering the bleak state of my finances at the moment. Even so, I maintain that it was still worth doing I think you learn something from every experience you get yourself into whether it was a positive, negative or even just a 'bleh' kind of experience. And even if you can't tell what it was exactly you got from it, I still think some useful little tidbit will have been stashed away in the back of your mind for future use. One thing I do know I took from the day was £16 which I didn't have before. But, if any stallholders happen to be reading this, I'd love to hear your perspective on disappointing market days: theories? Anecdotes?

Hoping for a bit more luck this time, my mum and her friends have kindly volunteered to mind my stall, while I gallivant off to SARDINIA. So fear not, Fauves will once again be there at the Hitchin Craft and Farmers market on Saturday 28th September

Sunday, 1 September 2013

To market to market to buy a fine pig, home again home again jiggety jigg.

Bargin.

Yesterday I was to be found flogging my wares at Hitchin craft and farmers market. There was not a pig in sight. Even so, the market was buzzing and the weather was beautiful and I had South African bunny chow for lunch, which was also beautiful. I met some lovely people and my jewellery sold pretty well!
Prior to the market I'd been working on things to decorate the stall and hopefully attract interest. I've spent hours painting, printing, backing on card and cutting out trees.

I was watching Adaptation. Hey Meryl!

My original plan was to hang jewellery from the branches but actually that didn't look as good as I'd imagined so they'll just remain as scenery I reckon

Grrrrr. Roar. Rustle. Cuckawwww.

To see how it all came together I set it all up and played market in the kitchen, and now that I'm all grown up I'm allowed to play with real money. I put boxes under the cloth at the back to give it a bit of depth, but forgot to bring these to the actual market itself, despite walking round the house in the morning repeating "boxesboxesboxesboxes"to myself.

Bloody Boxes

My glamourous assistant and business card ninja.

And as if the products weren't enough incentive to visit us...

I learned a lot of things, it was really interesting to see which items were most popular and to hear peoples feedback about it all. I'll definitely be back again and next time I'll be armed with even more trees, perhaps another garland or two, a flask of tea and chairs....definitely chairs next time. And next time I aim to have the table look more like a safari landscape, as well as more trees I might also make some wild grass and perhaps even a jeep!

Thursday, 22 August 2013

I've watched 12 episodes of Dexter in 2 days. That's 12 hours! And that's not even all I've watched! The problem with Netflix is that it just plays the next episode without you even having to ask it, its like they never ever want me to leave them.

Buuuutt while it's true that I have spent hours and hours sitting on my arse, I have actually been doing lots of creative things for the business. I made millions of Fimo beads...

Since my dolly mixture bracelets seem to sell so well I thought it'd probably be a good idea to make some more kitsch jewellery ("Smell what sells"- Lord Sugar). So, the bows and roses got transformed into these...

In other news: I took a trip to the mysterious wholesaler which is a magical place, despite not quite measuring up to the grandiose image I'd gradually built up in my head of it. I bought all sorts of metallicy things: jump rings, studs and backs, hair grips, plastic bags and more- all by the million. So I'm planning on expanding my stock selection considerably!
I also now have Fauves business cards in a little handmade box. Next time however I think I won't handwrite my details onto each individual card, I got a very achey hand, in the future I'll employ my printing skills instead.

owowowow

I've been getting a bit more into Pinterest (I've even added 'pin-it' buttons to my blog images! Snazzy). But I'd love to hear from you more seasoned Pinterest users! Tell me about your pinning strategy: where do you find great images to pin (outside Pinterest)? How do you categorise your boards? Why do you find Pinterest useful?

Sunday, 18 August 2013

I've been out and about a bit recently, and one the places I've been is the V&A in London (for the squillionth time...I like it there).

But even though I have been there exactly a squillion times I'm pretty sure I haven't seen nearly all that they have on show there. I'll always take a trip to the jewellery room though, that's a given.

Another of my favourite things to see there are the portrait miniatures, really I'm almost mesmerised by anything in miniature but collections of tiny gold or jewel encrusted frames can tend to make me let out my (very girly) inner girl and squeal a bit. I think maybe I'd like to do something with miniature frames...not to be too vague or anything....something crafty. I'll let you know if this happens.

My boyfriend (afraid I can't take the credit for this one) actually came up with a great idea for how I could display my jewellery. Going along with the 'wild beasts' I've been drawing for the Fauves marketing I could draw some animals which could then be backed on card and stood up to hang my jewellery off of. For instance perhaps a giraffe with a super long neck which the bracelets could hang from. I'll work on this in the next few days, and again, let you know how it turns out.

But less of what I mean to do! I've actively achieved making some new products of late. I now have dolly mixture necklaces, rose bracelets and a few more pairs of earrings to add to my stock. Here, have a look!

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Maybe it'd be a good thing to catch you up with where I currently am with my business venture...

You wouldn't do that to me would you shuggz?

I'd say that Fauves has been really up and running since...well...(after several minutes scrutinising my calendar)....it's quite hard to put a finger on actually. I started watching some beading tutorials and getting interested in beading around January of this year (between the space of then and now my gift giving has become really quite predictable). I became a bit fixated and began spending a bit much time in the haberdashery section of John Lewis, sitting cross legged in front of the beads in a state of inner turmoil over how many colours I could currently afford.

I was sat in room in my student house surrounded by more earrings and bracelets than I could possible wear myself and it occurred to me that I might be able to make some money out of this. My first (and to date only) craft market was on the 6th of July at a school fete in london. The stall was shared between myself and two other lovely ladies and I was pretty chuffed with the 85 quid I'd earned by the end of the day. I was a bit disappointed that I only managed to sell 1 pair of earrings but my dolly mixture bracelets sold like hot cakes!

Since then I've set up a shop on folksy (which since it's creation roughly a month ago one item has been sold...still, I remain hopeful) and a Facebook page, Twitter account and Pinterest page (and although Pinterest still vexes me a little I'm starting to get to grips with it). And excitingly I've got two real life shops stocking my wares ('Raindrops on Roses' and 'Sanuk')! I've made little sales here and there but I suppose at the moment I'm still trying to make my business as accessible as I can! If you're reading this and can think of anything else you think I should be doing I'd really love to hear from you- just drop me a comment :)

Monday, 5 August 2013

Hi! I'm Kat. Can you actually believe it, I've got a blog!

What even is that? You decide

I'm fresh out of university with a degree in Design for Film & TV from Nottingham Trent (and if you're interested in seeing a little bit of my work then have a click here), and it's a weird time when you're finally let loose into the big wide world- I'm not really sure what to do with myself. So, in the meantime I've set myself a little project. I'm starting a Business (although calling it that does seem a tad grandiose)! I'm always making things and I think it'd be pretty cool if I could make some cash doing what I love doing anyway!

So, I thought a blog might be really useful for tracking my steps, keeping a record of whats working and what isn't, seeing where I get and how long it takes etc. etc. etc....It's all one big experiment really.

It was a pleasure to have you read my very first post, do pop back again soon! In the meantime I'm off for a brew xx